Sheet Music Collections
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10315/8004
York University is a member of the Sheet Music Consortium (SMC), an online initiative hosted and managed by the UCLA Digital Library Program to aggregate digital sheet music collections world wide. The SMC harvests descriptive sheet music metadata from the YorkSpace repository at regular intervals and links back to both the York University Library catalogue record and the YorkSpace repository record for the item.
Where possible in accordance with Canadian copyright law, York University Libraries are posting sheet music to the YorkSpace repository as it is described and digitized. York University Libraries approach the digitization of historical sheet music based on several best practices related to fair use and Canadian copyright legislation, and the established practices of our partners with the Sheet Music Consortium.
The vast majority of the collection consists of digitized sheet music from the extensive fonds of John Arpin, with the addition of approximately 200 digitized items of sheet music from various fonds held at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections. The John Arpin fonds consist of over 140,000 items of sheet music, and were donated to the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections by his wife, Dr. Mary Jane Esplen in 2011. Due to the size of the collection, the digitization and description of the John Arpin collection will continue for many years to come.
Click here to see our FAQ for the Sheet Music Collections.
Content Warning Nineteenth and twentieth-century sheet music reflects both the racial stereotypes and social prejudices of the era. Users should be aware that racial slurs, epithets, pejorative terms, and racially stereotyped images and instances of blackface, redface, and yellowface may be encountered as they search the collection. Such language is especially evident in minstrel songs.
Where possible in accordance with Canadian copyright law, York University Libraries are posting sheet music to the YorkSpace repository as it is described and digitized. York University Libraries approach the digitization of historical sheet music based on several best practices related to fair use and Canadian copyright legislation, and the established practices of our partners with the Sheet Music Consortium.
The vast majority of the collection consists of digitized sheet music from the extensive fonds of John Arpin, with the addition of approximately 200 digitized items of sheet music from various fonds held at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections. The John Arpin fonds consist of over 140,000 items of sheet music, and were donated to the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections by his wife, Dr. Mary Jane Esplen in 2011. Due to the size of the collection, the digitization and description of the John Arpin collection will continue for many years to come.
Click here to see our FAQ for the Sheet Music Collections.
Content Warning Nineteenth and twentieth-century sheet music reflects both the racial stereotypes and social prejudices of the era. Users should be aware that racial slurs, epithets, pejorative terms, and racially stereotyped images and instances of blackface, redface, and yellowface may be encountered as they search the collection. Such language is especially evident in minstrel songs.